A protest against Uber in Mexico 'paralyzed the roadways' before turning into a violent street riot

Taxi drivers clash with merchants and other bystanders during protests against the ride-hailing service Uber in Guadalajara, Mexico, in March 2016.Luis Alberto Fuentes/Twitter

A protest against Uber in Guadalajara, Mexico, turned violent on Tuesday, as taxi drivers demonstrating against Uber and other ride-hailing services clashed with supporters of the companies and with police.

The protest "paralyzed the roadways" in the city after a "massive closure of avenues with at least two thousand vehicles," according to Mexican newspaper La Jornada.

The protesters were calling on the local government to punish private vehicles that were offering Uber services, according to Mexico City-based newspaper Milenio, and were asking for the government to develop a fair proposal for the ride-hailing service to operate.

"The last thing Guadalajara needs is violence and the events between cab drivers and shopkeepers at the city centre yesterday are regrettable," Uber told Business Insider in a statement, adding that it saw open dialogue as "the way to create regulation that provides legal clarity and customer choice."

The tweet below shows taxi drivers amassing in the city center and blocking roadways with their vehicles. The drivers were gathering outside the state congress building.

The protest was announced last week with the intention of it happening before the state congress discussed the regulation of the ride-hailing services in the state of Jalisco, of which Guadalajara is the capital.

A local workers' organization said allowing Uber into the Guadalajara market would be a "severe blow" to the traditional taxi business and that the ride-hailing service would be "unfair competition."

"Uber is affecting us a lot. They're taking the food off our table," a taxi driver in Guadalajara told Vice News in August last year. "I've been working for 23 years but there are people who have been taxi drivers for 50 years, people who are old, who won't find work anywhere else."

The demonstration on Tuesday turned violent however, as protesting taxi drivers, supporters of the ride-hailing services, and local authorities clashed on the streets of Guadalajara.

"#Disturbance in #taxistasvsuber," the tweet below reads in English, as "people throw objects from rooftops" onto the streets below.

Fighting between protesting taxi drivers and merchants and bystanders also erupted in the Plaza de la Tecnologia, in the center of the city.

The clashes in the Plaza de la Tecnologia reportedly started after someone, either a merchant or a shopper, assaulted a protesting tax driver. The taxi drivers responded, after which people, reportedly Uber sympathizers, took to rooftops and began throwing objects at demonstrators below, according to a local official.

Shopkeepers confronted demonstrators because the protest was disrupting entry to a local market, setting off a fight in the street, Uber said in its statement.

In response, Uber was offering two free rides up to 100 pesos each, or about $5.60, to users in the city. Uber drivers reportedly took to social media to advertise the deal.

Uber told Business Insider that the two-free-ride offer was the same response company has had in similar situations.

This is not the first violent incident related to Uber's operations in Guadalajara.

In August of last year, several Uber drivers were abducted at gunpoint, with several of them pistol-whipped before having their cars stolen. The abductions came after a series of violent encounters in the city throughout the summer, according to Vice News.

A local taxi driver paints "Uber out" on the back windshield of his car during a protest in Mexico City, May 25, 2015. Local taxi drivers held a series of marches and road blocks across the city on May 25 in protest against the possible legitimatizing of what they say are illegal services. REUTERS/Adan Gutierrez

Mexican taxi drivers are not the only ones to push back against the ride-hailing service. In Colombia in November, Uber was given a six-month deadline to formally register its operations or face a ban; the order was followed by a $140,000 fine for "unauthorized taxi services" this month.